334 
6 C69 
IPV ^ 



t I K;^^ I 



Qe^oM ^tj^calT^HP © f 




r33f 

$150,000 CAPITAL. SDRPLUS AND UNDIVIDED PROFITS $46,000. 



THE ALAB/MA NJITIONAL BANK, 

OF MOBILE, 

Will' increase its capital to 8300,000, and 
offers one hundred thousand dollars 
of its increase to the investing public on 
liberal terms. Under present manage- 
ment this bank has gained 60 % in busi- 
ness in the past two months, and will 
surely pay 8 % dividends. 

For particulars, address 

C. W. Ruth, Pres. 

Mobile, Ala. 



DIRECTORY: 



F. H. McLarney,V. p., (Jas. McDonnell) Wholesale Grocer 

L. Brewer, ('otton Factor 

D. R. BuRGESvS, - . - of Robins, Burgess & Co. 
F. G. Bromberg, - - - Fx-Meniber of Congress 

W. B. Pope, - - - Cashier 

C.W.Ruth, - - -,.• - - - - President 

V^* Corrospoiiflenop ;iti(J Bnsinpss Solicit t^d. 



™ «« sa'Spwi'wi^^^ 



PROPHECY AND PROFIT. 






The facts set out and the events foreshadowed herein have no 
value to you unless you are active, ambitious, able. 

Mobile has natural advantages sufficient to have made her long 
since the Queen of Gulf commerce. 

But she is not! 

Mobile has the wealth of resources to have made her the man- 
ufacturing center of America. 

But she is not ! 

Mobile has the climatic and health conditions to make her the 
grandest of health and Winter resorts. 

But she is not! 

Mobile could be the source of princely fortune to her citizens 
and strangers of every land. 

But she is not! 

Why? 

Because she lacked the opportune time when she had the men 
and the ambition. 

She has had the opportunity and lacked the facilities and 
knowledge of resources. 

She has had the knowledge of resources and lacked the men 
and ambition. 

She has had some necessary factor all the time, but all factors 
at no time. 

She lacks now but one condition to fulfill the fruition of her 
long century of hope and struggle, rebuff and repeated effort. She 
requires that factor now. 

She needs you ! ! 

She lacks only the experience, energy, capital and pluck of you 
and your friends. 

Calm deliberation upon the facts herein set out must prompt 
you to heed them and profit your fortune. 

[1] 



Wk 'liB W W M 'Wl''w© 



The country makes the city. The wealth of the interior ren- 
ders possible the great trading, commercial center through which 
its products seek sale, exchange and delivery. 

Added to the thousands of square miles of central agricultural 
wealth (see large circle on map) that must seek the markets of the 
world, the State of Alabama alone furnishes resources enough to 
compel the building of a great coast metropolis ; while a few miles 
to the northwest the inexhaustible pine regions of Mississippi lie 
awaiting development. Our coal area alone amounts to 12,000 
square miles ; more than that of Great Britain, the greatest coal 
producing country in the world. It exceeds by 2,000 square miles 
the entire area of the State of Maryland. Our output of coal in 1880 
was 320,000 tons, in 1889 it was 4,000,000 tons, and the figures of 1890 
will approximate 5,000,000 for coal and coke. 

The iron output in 1880 was 62,336 tons; in 1889 it was 890,432, 
while the present year will see at least an output of 1,400,000 tons. 
Mr. Tate, the State Commissioner for the industrial resources of 
Alabama, reports that a ridge of iron of an average thickness of 
15 feet runs parallel to one of the principal railroad lines for a dis- 
tance of 150 miles. In other parts of the state are immense deposits 
of red Hematite and Black Band ore, inexhaustible in quantity and 
of inestimable value. Near by are found abundance of marble, flag, 
slate, limestone and fine fire clay. The late discovery of petroleum 
opens up a boundless field for new enterprises and profit. 

Her agricultural resources are abundant. Cotton culture grows 
yearly in extent and value ; the yield for 1890 was 1,000,000 bales. 
The corn product was 26,000,000 bushels, while the total value of 
her agricultural products was $93,000,000. 

Every sort of food culture, from vegetables and fruits to cereals 
and live stock, is developing new sources of wealth but lately sup- 
posed possible. 

To her timber area of 15| million acres (or 47 per cent, of the 
area of the state) add the vast and unrivalled timber belt of South- 
eastern Mississippi, and something like an idea may be reached of 
the lumber development necessary here. The value of her lumber 
product for 1890 is over lOJ million dollars. 

Chief among her valuable forests, in addition to the yellow 
pine, which is by far the largest, are oak, white oak, poplar, cedar, 
hickory, cottonwood, mulberry, elm, cypress, ash, tupelo, gum and 
juniper — all accessible, both by rail and water wavs. 

[2] 

By Transfer 
Geological Survey 

MAR 16 1931 



THE CITY. 



SITUATION, AREA, ADVANTAGES, &C. 

Mobile is already the largest city and far more important still, 
the 07ilij seaport in the great State of Alabama. 

She is built on a beautiful, gradually rising plateau which 
reaches an elevation of more than 200 feet at the hills, seven miles 
distant from the Mobile Kiver. Her area, including suburbs, is 17 
square miles. She has six miles of well improved river frontage 
and fully as much unimproved, with 30 feet natural depth of water. 
Her site commands the mouth of Mobile River, and the head of 
Mobile Bay (where vessels are loaded to 23 feet). An excavated 
ship channel 28 miles in length with 18 feet in depth at mean low 
tide, connects her wharves with the Gulf. This channel is being 
constantly widened and deepened by the general government, 
which with its growing care for American shipping, will soon open 
Mobile Port to the largest ocean steamers. 



TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 



RIVER SYSTEM. 

Seven rivers with an aggregate navigability of 1,087 miles 
(being yearly increased), form the great river system of Alabama 
and pour their wealth into Mobile Bay. They^e is not, elsewhere in 
the world, such combined industrial and commercial luealth upon 
water courses that feed a single port. 

The recent appropriations by Congress aggregate almost one 
and a half million for the rivers of Alabama and the harbor of 
Mobile, and will greatly widen and deepen the Bay channel and 
increase the navigable mileage of our rivers. As the i^esult of work 
under the last appropriation the first steamboat passed up the 
Coosa river the last of December. The Secretary of Interior in his 
last report to Congress, recommends the appropriation of $400,000 
to give and maintain a six-foot channel for the Alabama river. 
Here less work is required to maintain a harbor than elsewhere, 
because the outer bar of this port differs from all others on the 

3 



Atlantic or Gulf Seaboard, in a very important particular. In all 
others from natural causes the depth in the channel has been 
decreasing, unless prevented by artificial means. Exactly the 
reverse is the case at Mobile. The depth in the channel at the 
outer bar has been gradually increasing from natural erosion as 
far back as the records go. The British admiralty chart made in 
1790 shows 12 feet of water over this bar, while now a mean depth 
of 24 feet is observable. This one fact alone will insure such 
appropriations from Congress to deepen the channel up to the city 
as will make this port the greatest on the Gulf of Mexico, and it is 
already the easiest maintained, on the continent. The increasing 
expenditure here of money by the government must always be a 
point in behalf of Mobile. It means more men employed, more 
people to clothe, educate and house. At the last visit of the 
United States Dry Dock Commission to Mobile, her advantages 
were apparent as a site for the great dry docks and navy yard to 
be built somewhere on the Gulf by the United States. Major 
Damrell, the Government Engineer, reported to the Commission 
that for a $3,000,000 api3ropriation he would guarantee a perfect 
30-foot channel to Mobile's wharves. The expenditure of a dozen 
millions here in dry docks, navy yards and harbor improvement 
would make of Mobile a Southern Philahelphia. 

RAILROADS. 

Three large systems center within the limits of this city. The 
Mobile & Ohio, the Louisville & Nashville'and the East Tennessee, 
Virginia & Georgia ; all having ample terminal facilities on the 
river front, and furnishing the best possible accommodations for 
both passenger and freight traffic. (See subsequent chapter for 
projected roads.) 

STEAMSHIP LINES. 

Four steamship lines connect Mobile with Central America, Cuba, 
Jamaica, New York and Liverpool. In addition to these, the inci- 
dental traffic of steamers and sailing vessels from all over the world 
makes our port fairly active in marine commerce. (See subsequent 
chapter for new ship lines and marine statistics.) 

POPULATION. 

The last census gave Mobile a population of 32,000 within the 
present restricted city limits. The real population of the city, 
including suburbs which are rural extensions of the city, will 
amount to 45,000— an increase within the same area of 20 per cent, 
since 1880. (The old enlarged city limits were abandoned after the 
bankruptcy of the city under the reconstruction debt.) 

[4] 



HE ALTHFULNESS . 

The healthfulness of Mobile is remarkable, and is due to her 
rolling surface, freedom from marshy and flat surroundings, pure 
food, air and water, and equable climate, with the effects upon all 
these, of the vast piney woods and Gulf breezes and sea air. 

The death rate was 6.3 per 1000 white population during the 
month of August, an average month. (See subsequent chapter, 
* 'Health Kesort.") * 

LIGHT AND WATER SUPPLY. 

Mobile is well lighted both by electricity and gas. Two systems 
of water works supply the city witii water, both obtaining their 
supply from beautiful, clear streams, fedj by springs in great pine 
forests lying Northwest of the city from seven to ten miles. This 
water is so pure as to be used undistilled by chemists for laboratory 
work. Such water supply combined with a first-class paid fire 
department, renders fires comparatively easy of control. 

SEWERAGE AND PAVING. 

The old fashioned surface sewerage system prevails here. This, 
however, will soon be changed, as steps are now being taken to- 
wards the institution of a complete underground system. 

Paving, so far, has been done with brick and cedar blocks, both 
of which are found very satisfactory. As soon as the sewerage 
question is settled, an extensive plan of street paving will be 
adopted. The sandy soil renders dearth of paving far less objec- 
tionable than is usually the case, as high winds are of rarest 
occurrence, and blowing sand and dust give very little discomfort. 

STREET RAILWAYS. 

Mobile has thirty-eight miles of city and suburban street rail- 
way, all owned and operated by one company. The service is being 
rapidly improved and perfected as streets are graded and paved. 
Authority has just been asked by the company from the city, to 
change its entire system of motive power from animal to electric. 
Very soon, therefore, we shall abandon the old system. 

EDUCATION AND RELIGION. 

Mobile City and County has the best public school system in 
the South. There are 27 schools within the city limits. Forty 
churches, representing the larger evangelical denominations, 
afford to listeners the best pulpit talent of the South. 

[5] 



AMUSEMENTS. 



THEATRES. 

Two theatres, with several concert houses, furnish ample ac- 
commodations for such attractions as visit the South. The manager 
of the Southern Circuit resides in Mobile, and all first-class com- 
panies visit us. 

MYSTIC SOCIETIES. 

Mobile is Icnown as the Mother of Mystics, or the originator of 
those magnificent street parades which attract so many visitors to 
this city and New Orleans on Mardi-Gras and New Year's Eve, and 
have made these cities famous even in foreign lands. These dis- 
plays and military encampments, with club and private entertain- 
ments, riding, driving, rowing, sailing, hunting and fishing, all 
afford ample amusements for pleasure seekers. 

BUSINESS. 

Every branch of trade common to the South is represented in 
Mobile. The chief "interests, however, are banking, general mer- 
chandise of all sorts, cotton and produce 'factoring and manufac- 
turing. The banking capital is about one and a half million. This 
gives her comparatively a limited banking fund. As a point for 
banking enterprises Mobile has no superior. The enlargement of 
one of our banks (see inside cover) and the incorporation of ^ new 
one of five hundred thousand dollars capital stock, are projects 
now already matured, while the field could well pay a profit on 
double the banking capital now employed. 

The Chamber of Commerce and Cotton Exchange and Com- 
mercial Club are active in their peculiar interests, and are rapidly 
improving the commercial status of the city. The past year shows 
a splendid accession to business over the previous year. Every 
branch of trade has improved, the average being fully ten percent. 
Kail shipments exceed the previous year thirty-six and one-half 
million pounds, and the receipts by rail exceed the previous year 
fifty-eight million pounds. The wholesale trade of the city exceeds 
that of any other city in Alabama, or her two adjacent sisters. The 
aggregate of her trade for 1890 will exceed thirty-five million dol- 
lars. 

[6] 



MANUFACTURES. 

Mobile has now over two hundred factories supplying only in 
part the enormous demands of her own people, the surrounding 
domestic demand and the rapidly increasing foreign trade. These, 
however, are but the beginning of her industrial importance. Sev- 
eral factories are just building their plants, and the projectors of 
new enterprises are daily inspecting sites and perfecting arrange- 
ments for extensive establishments. Enterprises reaching far up 
into the millions are rapidly materializing, and within two years 
our manufacturing capital will be quadrupled. The reasons for 
this must be found in our unrivaled transportation facilities else- 
where noted, the cheapness of living, abundance and cheapness of 
raw material, fuel, etc. Especially does Mobile excel in both price 
and quality of coal for every purpose. The cheapest coal port in 
the world is probably Sydney, Aus. The average price for export 
and manufacturing coal there is $2.50 per ton. With the comple- 
tion of our present river improvements by the expenditure of the 
government appropriations now in hand, Mobile will furnish the 
cheapest coal at tide water in the world, viz : one dollar and fifty 
cents per ton. With this advantage for her shipping and manu- 
factures, what can prevent her from being the greatest coaling port 
in the world, and the chief industrial centre of the South— that is, 
the commercial metropolis of the Gulf ? 



PROFITABLE PROBABILITIES. 



COTTON MANUFACTURING. 

No business man who has traveled to any extent over the South 
and considered well the conditions of the country at large in rela- 
tion thereto, can doubt that it is a question of only a few years 
when the looms and spindles of New England will be transferred 
to the States in which the raw material is produced. (See January 
No. of Tradesman, of Chattanooga, Tenn., for valuable statistical 
proof.) No one who has investigated the advantages and facilities 
possessed by Mobile, doubts, nor can doubt, that this industry must 
find the most desirable point here for its successful development. 
Why? (Note reasons for cheap manufacturing elsewhere set forth 
in "Epilogue.") 

[7J 



In the past season Mobile received two hundred and sixty- 
thousand bales of cotton, valued at thirteen and one-half million 
dollars, an increase over 1889 of thirty-two thousand bales. She 
should and must manufacture not only this, but much more be- 
sides from the surrounding country. 

The annual report of the President of the Mobile Cotton Ex- 
change shows that from the close of the war up to and including 
the last crop, the actual money paid for the cotton crop was 
$7,867,113,555. This, for the lint or fibre alone, while the present 
economical use of seed, refuse and stalk yields almost as much 
profit per annum now as the whole crop did under the old method. 

The cultivation of cotton in the South has gradually become 
more extensive and profitable, until last year saw the immense 
crop of 7,313,726 bales ; one-third of this only was consumed by 
spindles of this country; the balance found market in Europe. 
Nearly 10,000,000 foreign spindles manufactured what our own 
Southland should have done. 

The number of cotton mills, spindles and looms in the South, 
July 31, 1889, as compared with the number on May 31, 1880, is 
shown by the U. S. Census Report to be as follows : 

1880. . 1889. 

Total number of mills 161 355 

Total number of spindles 666,854 2,035,268 

Total number of looms 14,323 45,001 

These figures show that the number of mills now in the South as 
compared with 1880, has doubled, while the number of spindles and 
looms has more than trebled. The number of bales of cotton con- 
sumed by the mills of the South in 1885 was 266,000, while for 1889 
it exceeded 550,000— an increase of over one hundred per cent, in 
four years, and the present year shows still greater ratio of gain. 
What a grand industrial future must await the South ! Can any 
one consider her manufacturing advantages, elsewhere noted, and 
fail to place Mobile in the front rank of the future cotton manu- 
facturing centres ? 

IRON MANUFACTURING. 

In connection with this subject the opinion of Mr. J. G. Cham- 
berlain, manager of the Alabama Iron and R, R. Co., is valuable. 
His wide experience in the iron regions of Pennsylvania and Ohio 
renders his advice of great value. This opinion is that the vast 
coal and timber supply of Alabama must make her rival Pennsyl- 
vania in iron production. She has not the Bessemer ores, but he 
thinks the basic process sufficient to answer all purposes ; but ad- 

[8] 



vises us not to await the development of that process since an 
inexhaustible supply of the best Bessemer ores is found in Cuba, 
less than 500 miles from our port. If these ores can be (as they 
now are) mined and shipped 1,000 miles further to Pennsylvania, 
there reduced by more expensive coal and timber ingredients, and 
then again shipped a greater distance to the consumer, his opinion 
is that Mobile can make steel cheaper. In support of this opinion 
he shows an advantage of 10 per cent, in cost of production over 
Pennsylvania, counting the cost of transfer of Cuban ores the same 
to Mobile as to the points 1,000 miles further away. And this by the 
statistics of Carrol D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor at Wash- 
ington. Let it be remembered that when the steel is made here it 
is even then nearer to the consumer, by several dollars per ton 
freight charge, and our advantage is greatly increased. Mr. 
Chamberlain further suggests that oyster shells are very satisfac- 
tory fluxing material for iron ores, and altogether he insists that 
Mobile has peculiar advantages for steel and iron manufacturing 
—as she has large shell banks "ear at hand. If the use of shells 
prove impracticable. Mobile, of all the Gulf cities, is alone in 
having an abundant supply of limestone or smelting-rock near at 
hand, and very cheaply accessible by water. Great banks of it 
line the shores of her navigable rivers for 125 miles. South Ala- 
bama lime rock is easily quarried and strikingly similar in con- 
stituents to the fluxing carbonates used in the Cleveland iron 
district of England. 

To those interested in the future of iron and steel production a 
perusal of Prof. Toumay's work, "The Geology of Alabama," will 
be of interest as he has established the undoubted value of this 
limestone in that field. 

Just as this pamphlet goes to press, a Michigan prospector 
reports the find of a rich iron deposit within nine miles of Mobile. 
He and his Northern associates are buying up all the land near it 
and organizing a development company. The verification of this 
report will revolutionize the conditions here. 

LUMBER AND WOOD MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS. 

Being located in the midst of the pine, cypress and hard wood 
forests of the South, which are practically inexhaustible, and being 
at the sea outlet of seven rivers having a navigable extent of nearly 
1,100 miles, Mobile is already a leading yellow pine and the largest 
shingle manufacturing point east of the Mississippi river and south 
of the Ohio. Thirty large lumber and shingle mills are located in or 

[9] 



near the city. Thousands of square miles of virgin pine forests 
are owned by great Northern corporations, which are rapidly 
arranging to develop them, thus adding to the timber shipments 
from this port and to the manufacturing and supply industries of 
Southern Alabama and of Mobile. 

LUMBER AND TIMBER SHIPMENTS. 

Lumber and timber shipments by rail and water in 1880 
amounted to 40,000,000 feet ; in 1890, to 160,000,000 feet. The output 
of shingles per day amounts now to 1,400,000, or double what it was 
a year ago. These figures foreshadow the future. 

The great variety of timber which can be obtained here, being 
accessible either by rail or water, gives this city advantages for 
manufacturing all kinds of furniture, implements and wooden 
ware, rivaling all competitors. Besides, manufacturing sites at 
merely nominal prices are abundant and easy of access to deep 
water, and many of them convenient to fine water power, while 
arrangements are being made to exempt from taxation and encour- 
age manufacturers by joining home capital with foreign in all 
legitimate enterprises. 

SHIP BUILDING. 

Some Southern point must soon inaugurate ship building upon 
an extensive plan. All the advantages of a Northern port, with 
none of its disadvantages, are already ours. Given ample dock 
room and cheap iron, cheap coal, cheap living expenses and cheap 
raw materials, you have the reasons for the necessity of ship 
building here to supply the great demand for gulf and sea-going 
vessels. Already a dry dock company is in course of organization 
and will soon be ready to enter that field, should the national dry 
docks not be located here. 

WATER POWER. 

Within a few miles of Mobile natural water power of magnifi- 
cent capacity exists, never failing, and in close proximity to deep 
water and railways. Thousands of horse power can be developed 
at scores of places within ten miles of Mobile. With the combi- 
nation of a deep harbor and water power for electric machinery, 
what port on this continent can rival Mobile? 

To afford some idea of the value of water power and our advan- 
tage over the North in that respect, the following figures are given 
in statistics of Chattanooga Tradesman for January: The total 
water power available in the South is 21,000,000 horse power; Ala- 

[10] 



bama alone has about two and a half million. The cost of water 
power in the South as compared with the North is remarkably low, 
being less than one-fifth on an average. 

The cost for horse power per annum is as follows : North- 
Lowell, Mass., $14.12; Dayton, O., $38.00; Turner, Mass., $10.00; 
Cohoes, N. Y., $20.00. South Carolina— Graniteville, $5.81; 
Lbngly, $2.10; Glendale, 40 cents. 

The total power, both steam and water, consumed in the 
United States in 1880, was three and a half million horse power, 
only one-sixth the available water power of the South alone which 
costs much less than 20 per cent, of the average of power cost in 
the whole country. 

FISH AND OYSTER TRADE. 

A most successful career awaits the development of the enor- 
mous fish and oysler supply of Mobile bay and the Gulf. We must 
soon rival the Atlantic coast in our fish industry. Miles upon 
miles of oyster beds along the Gulf coast lie undeveloped because 
of lacking capital, thrift and enterprise. With the rapid exhaus- 
tion of the Atlantic coast fisheries this must soon change. Our 
oyster trade the past year will reach $150,000, and the fish trade 
$85,000,— being an increase of fully 15 per cent, over the previous 
year, which was 10 per cent, on an average above 1888. Some 
of the most renowned oyster packers of the North have arranged 
to establish plants here,— notably, the Boothe Oyster Company of 
Chicago. The culture of terrapin is developing rapidly, and this, 
together with the utilization of our abundance of marketable fish, 
promises a mammoth industry very soon. 

VEGETABLE FARMING. 

Over a half million dollars worth of vegetables were shipped 
from Mobile last year, and new energy and thrift from the North 
are every month entering this profitable field. 

Thousands of acres of land at cheap prices, ranging from two 
to five dollars per acre, lie close around Mobile, where a vast popu- 
lation must soon exercise its energies and add to our wealth and 
spread the fame of Mobile as a producing centre. The half million 
dollars of exported vegetables last year are but th^ beginning. 
These lands are covered with valuable timber, have hard clay sub- 
soil with sandy loam surface, and afford the most profitable basis 
for utilization in vegetable farming. This has been abundantly 
demonstrated by numerous instances where truck farmers have 
paid for their farms, clearings and improvements by the profits of 

[IIJ 



the first year's crops. The gardener Who mingles hts brainsjjudi- 
ciously with his fertilizers, and watches the markets, has a fortune 
in his grasp in a very few years. Local instances are found where 
this has been done, and what has been may well be again. Four 
crops every fifteen months are usual here. The work-day people 
of the unsalubrious North need only to be shown the reality of 
these facts as they lie open to ocular demonstration, when they" 
will embrace the golden opportunity to escape from a slavery to 
times, seasons, accidents and risks incident to their now hard 
lives. 

WINTER AND HEALTH RESORT. 

Mobile offers unique advantages for a winter resort. Where 
can be found a more equable climate than that shown below. 
With a temperature and climate unsurpassed in every feature. 
Mobile offers all the amusements and literary advantages of 
a cultured and elegant city. Every winter resort in this country 
is sadly cursed with the ennui of exclusive hotel life,— nothing 
outside and beyond it. Here nature joins hand and voice with 
civilized ainenities, urban refinement and social opportunities, 
unsurpassed in any city North or South. This feature alone should 
make Mobile a Mecca for all fugitives from the rigorous blasts and 
icy blizzards of the North. Signal Service Officer Bolton has 
made a comparison between Mobile and Jacksonville from the 
records of his office which gives the following result : 

The mean maximum temperature of Mobile from May to Octo- 
ber is less than Jacksonville, Fla. 

The mean minimum temperature for same months is 2° less. 

The annual mean maximum temperature is 2° less. 

Relative humidity much less, and number of sunny days 
greater ; while winters seldom freeze, and more reliable land and 
gulf breezes modify both extremes. 

The following average monthly temperatures for 1889, reported 
by the U. S. Signal Office, speak for themselves: January, 51.3°; 
February, 50.9°; March, 58.6°; April, 67.6°; May, 70.5°; June, 77.4°; 
July, 81.3°; August, 79.3° ; September, 76.7° ; October, 66°; Novem- 
ber, 56.4°; December. 61°. Average for the year, 66.4°. Average 
Summer temperature, 77°. Average Winter temperature. 56°. 

By the climatic advantages, the pure water and great variety 
of food, the health restoring and preserving elements of this cli- 
mate are greatly accentuated. There is the rarest occasion for 
leaving Mobile to regain health, and often the stubbornest 

ri2i 



catarrhal diseases and bronchial troubles, incident to the rigorous 
climate of the North, are instantly relieved and rendered easy of 
cure by a few weeks sojourn here. (See inside of back.) 



REAL ESTATE. 

There is no feature of a city to which the outside investment 
public looks for profit so readily as to its real estate. In this, we 
are peculiarly fortunate. With the extremely low prices following 
the war, and reconstruction experiences, Mobile real estate has 
never been high. Prices have gradually advanced, however, for 
several years. The increase during 1890 was fully fifteen per cent. 
The activity of our market this winter has been fifty per cent, over 
the same p eriod last year. In the face of the present financial 
stringency, and the general feeling'of uncertainty in the North and 
South, sales are nevertheless frequent here. 

The normal value of real estate in any city of iD.OOO people on 
this continent is at least 50 per cent, more than Mobile prices and 
oftener 100 per cent. This, in view of the grand future that is 
surely ours, is somewhat remarkable. It renders real estate invest- 
ments here absolutely free from the odium of speculation. The 
completion of any one of the railways hereinafter mentioned 
alone would add certainty to doubt of profit, in any investment 
at present prices. 

Again, in no city has a change of street railway motive power 
from animal to electric, failed to result in the great enhancement 
of real estate values. In Mobile every reason exists for the max- 
imum good effect of such a change. Within a year it is confidently 
expected that the last vestige of the mule car will have faded from 
our streets. This is a point for investors to regard with peculiar 
interest. 

Visitors are quietly coming in every day, drawn here by curi- 
osity, pleasure, or health or investment seeking. All are favorably 
impressed. Added to the natural drift of winter emigration from 
the North, arrangements have been perfected by which select 
investment excursions from all the leading cities of the North are 
bringing in representative capitalists and manufacturers every 
fortnight. The results of these efforts so far are very flattering, 
and their continuance cannot but greatly forward every interest of 
Mobile. 



fl3] 



MOJECTED RAILWAYS. 

Evidence of the growing importance of southern ports, and of 
Mobile particularly, is found in the trend of railroad building. No 
longer does a "trunk line " mean an East and West line. Trunk 
lines are spanning the rich interior North and South. That this is 
the perfectly natural course one will see by a glance at the wonder- 
ful circle map. Such routes, too, follow the grade of natural water 
courses from the North to the South,while the East and West lines 
must cross numerous water sheds from coast to coast. 

In addition to the three trunk lines named under the head of 
transportation facilities, six new lines of railroad are projected and 
cannot but add largely to the city's business and general improve- 
ment. 

1st. The Chicago & Gulf Air Line, the survey of which was 
made some years since, which now promises a speedy materializa- 
tion. It opens up a very valuable direct connection with Chicago 
and the great lakes and shortens the route at least twenty per cent. 

2d. The Mobile & Dauphin Island Railway. This great enter- 
prise involves the expenditure of millions of dollars in the con- 
struction of wharves and maintenance of a port at deep water. It is 
in the hands of local and English capital. Surveys have been 
made, property purchased and all the preliminaries for beginning 
active work are completed. The road proper will be only thirty- 
five miles long, but will be open to all the trunk lines through 
Mobile to the deep water station. It goes without saying that a 
coaling port established there will do for Mobile fully as much as 
similar enterprises have done for other cities, in Europe and our 
own country. Such an effect would quadruple our population and 
increase our maritime importance ten fold. 

3d. An old project embracing a railway to Navy Cove, with 
the general development of the eastern shore, and building a 
harbor at the lower end of the Bay, has been lately revived. Strong 
New England investors have taken hold of the matter, and it is 
reported by the management that material contracts are let and 
the project will very soon be a reality. This will greatly assist the gen- 
eral growth of Mobile's commercial importance, in the same line 
as the Dauphin Island road. Added to this there are thousands of 
acres of land on the eastern shore purchasable at $2 per acre, on 
which can be grown the finest vegetables in the world, all the year 
round, and which will produce the famous Sea Island cotton in com- 
petition with the world. 

[Ul 



4th. The Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City Eailway'surveys have 
been completed, profiles made and twenty miles of road nearly 
ready for the iron, while a construction company is now forming 
among the stockholders and the northern owners of the vast timber 
forests through which the line runs, to build the road. 

The significance of this enterprise may be surmised when it is 
known that a mass of virgin pine land and hard wood timber five 
thousand square miles in area is opened up for the first time by 
this road, and brought directly tributary to Mobile thereby. In 
addition to this, the line furnishes the beginning of an air line to 
Kansas City, the center of the rich agricultural region of the "West, 
shortening the sea outlet from that section by at least 15 per cent. 

By way of comparison, this road alone will open up a country 
between Mobile and Jackson one hundred and eighty-five miles in 
extent, none of the trade of which now comes to Mobile, and much 
of which is the finest pine timber of this continent. It is of greater 
extent and richer in resources, climatic advantages and industrial 
and commercial possibilities than the country upon the opening up 
and development of which sprang up Tacoma, Seattle and Port 
Townsend with other northwestern coast cities having an aggregate 
population of a quarter of a million souls. 

These timber lands are largely owned by Northern companies, 
which are only awaiting transportation facilities before beginning 
the active development of their lands. This can but mean thousands 
of people, new communities, consumers and producers to whom 
Mobile must furnish supplies. Her port must receive their imports 
and discharge their exports, thus adding to her commercial and 
industrial importance. 

5th. The Mobile & Girard Railroad. This is a branch of the 
great West Point Terminal railroad system and is building towards 
Mobile ; the construction contract being let as far as Pollard, Ala- 
bama, and the work is already begun. 

6th. The Mobile Western Railway is a road now projected 
over the old grade of the Mobile & Northwestern, which was made 
a score of years ago. The local stockholders report a very great 
probability of the operation of this road within the year. The 
letting of contracts is now prevented by litigation which it is 
believed will soon be adjusted. This road will give a second outlet 
to the Mississippi lumber section. 

This completes a system of nine railways, which with our seven 
rivers must render Mobile the unrivaled Queen of the Gulf. 

fl6] 



PROJECTED SHIPPING ENTERPRISES. 

A better appreciation of the necessity for the growth of our 
port may be had by considering this fact. A population of 6,000,000 
is gathered along 200 miles of the Atlantic coast. Yet on the 
Gulf we have 1,800 miles of coast, we have infinite superiority of 
climate, resources, tributary country, proximity to the vast export 
producing regions, lying in the line of natural grades from them, 
and yet only one city of over 40,000 people, and only two with so 
many as that. Can this always be? No one believes it. 

Our growing commerce with Cuba, Jamaica and the Americas 
has called for large accessions to our shipping facilities. The 
establishment of four steamship lines since July, with several 
barge lines, demonstrate how rapidly our maritime traffic is devel- 
oping. The number of ships, foreign and coastwise, entering and 
clearing this port, the past year, is 362, while for the previous year 
it was only 258, showing an increase in the year of 104 ships, at 
least 75 per cent, of which increase is to be credited to the last half 
year. Add to these the fleet of 40 tugs active in every line of tow- 
age from rafts and barges up to steamships, and the arrival and 
departure of 1,500 river steamboat cargoes, and you have a fair 
picture of the activity of our harbor the past year. 

"During the past 11 months the export trade of the South alone 
has increased over twenty-four million dollars, while the increase 
of the balance of the country all told was but four million, eight 
hundred thousand dollars." Think of it! The Southern ports in- 
creased their trade over five times more than the total increase of 
the balance of the country. (See Manufacturers' Record, Decem- 
ber, 1890.) These facts show the growing importance of the South 
and Central American and Insular commerce. They have been the 
cause of the organization of the 

PAN AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION COMPANY. 

This Company has been chartered under the laws of Illinois, 
Texas and Alabama, with an authorized capital stock of fifty mil- 
lion dollars. It is now seeking incorporation under the laws of the 
United States, preliminary to the inauguration of a line of steam- 
ers to be run from Mobile and Galveston to the chief foreign ports 
of all the Americas and the West Indies. The bill for incorpora- 
tion as reported by committee establishes the headquarters of the 
Company in Mobile. 

[16] 



This and like enterprises only show the growing demand for 
facilities of commerce. They are only added reasons for Mobile's 
coming greatness. Though greater than all the factors thus far 
noted in their importance to Mobile is the 

NICARAGUA SHIP CANAL. 

The early completion of the Nicaragua ship can&,l, work upon 
which has i^rogressed so successfully for nearly two years, means 
ten-fold more to gulf and inter-oceanic commerce than did the 
opening of the Suez canal to Mediterranean shipping. The Euro- 
pean merchant marine was revolutionized by De Lessep's grand 
achievement. This N icaragua project is in the hands of Americans 
of national reputation in finance and engineering skill. Its suc- 
cess is more certainly assured now than that of the Trans-Conti- 
nental railway a quarter of a century ago. 

What must this do for Mobile? Every vessel bound from ocean to 
ocean must ride the waters of the Gulf. Those now rounding Cape 
Horn will save ten thousand miles of dangerous navigation, thou- 
sands of risks and weeks of time. Their aggregate tonnage is now 
six million per annum. That is, three thousand ships of two thou- 
sand tons burthen each. With the shorter and safer canal route, 
this tonnage will soon re-duplicate. Yet with no increase in ton- 
nage those three thousand ships must halt at a coaling or 
provisioning port ; that port must be Mobile proper or her deep 
water station at Dauphin Island because of the unrivaled price of 
her coal. The coaling of these vessels would alone consume more 
than all the industries of Southern Alabama combined. Then 
consider the incidents to such halts,— the repairs, exchanges and 
provisioning, and scores of new lines of trade established directly 
to Mobile through the necessities of the case, the nature of our 
products and the demands of our consumption. 

If this project succeeds. Mobile must be the largest coaling 
stMtion in the world, because the cheapest, the safest and the easiest 
of access. What other city is so near a veritable highway of the 
world's marine commerce? By the same necessities growing out 
of the combination of fortuitous circumstances elsewhere noted, 
she must be the unrivaled commercial metropolis of the South. 
We say, "if this project succeeds." Its success is guaranteed by 
the government's participation in the project a bill for which is 
now pending in congress with every prospect of approval, and by 
the achievements of American energy, pluck and genius, as illus- 

[17] 



trated in the Marine cable and scores of other supposed impossi- 
ble feats of genius, now the just pride of history and science and 
the heritage of our civilization. 

MOBILE'S EXPORTS. 

Referring to the circle map on the cover hereof, a glance 
shows avast territory within the larger circle whose products must 
always exceed its consumption, and which therefore must send a 
large proportion of them beyond sea. In fact 51 per cent, of 
all the exports of the country (excepting petroleum) comes from 
that section now. Mobile is nearer to the remotest point in that 
circle on direct lines by 244 miles than the nearest Atlantic port 
and nearer by 56 miles than any other Gulf port. Why should 
Mobile not teem with elevators and all the facilities for the ship- 
ment of the products of that region? There is such importance 
attached to the South American trade by Chicago as to call for the 
inauguration of a project to cost several million dollars merely to 
put her in water communication with those countries. She pro- 
poses to construct a canal to the Mississippi river, thus gaining 
a steamboat connection with the ships at New Orleans, while nature 
has put Mobile's port nearly a thousand miles nearer to those 
countries, with direct ship channel and a hundred per cent, advant- 
age in the cost of manufacturing the articles of trade with which 
Chicago seeks to supply them. 

It should be borne in mind that a route via Mobile to the open 
sea from the points in the western half of this circle competing 
with Gulf points west of Mobile would give the advantage of a 
route along the base of an equilateral triangle, against a route fol- 
lowing the two sides. In many cases it would give the route of 
the hypotenuse as against the sum of both legs in favor of Mobile. 
This gives an advantage far surpassing that shown by the tabulated 
statement below. The table of the distances of the chief cities 
within the larger circle from the leading Atlantic and Gulf ports 
presents a striking advantage for Mobile. It should be borne in 
mind that these distances are measured by the shortest con- 
structed rail routes. 



[is: 



FROM ST. LOUIS TO ATLANTIC PORTS. 
Miles. 

New York 1,050 

Baltimore 934 

Savannah 891 

Philadelphia 975 

Charleston 917 

Brunswick 888 

FROM CHICAGO TO ATLANTIC PORTS. 

New York 897 

Baltimore 801 

Savannah 980 

Philadelphia ., 822 

Charleston... 939- 

Brunswick 979 

FROM KANSAS CITY TO ATLANTIC PORTS. 

New York 1,303 

Baltimore 1,197 

Savannah 1,168 

Philadelphia 1,228 

Charleston 1,194 

Brunswick 1,165 

DES MOINES, IOWA, ATLANTIC PORTS. 

New York 1,255 

Baltimore 1,159 

Savannah 1,251 

Philadelphia 1,180 

Charleston 1,277 

Brunswick 1,248 



FROM ST. LOUIS TO GULF PORTS. 

Miles. 

Galveston 870 

Pensacola 770 

New Orleans 700 

mobile 644 



FROM CHICAGO TO GULF PORTS. 

Galveston 1,113 

New Orleans 915 

Pensacola 902 

mobile 857 



FROM KANSAS CITY TO GULF PORTS. 

Galveston 805 

New Orleans 881 

Pensacola 997 

Mobile 821 



DES MOINES, IOWA, TO GULF PORTS. 

Galveston 1,035 

New Orleans 1,060 

Pensacola 1,180 

mobile 1 ,004 



The smaller circle on the map referred to embraces the richest 
coal and iron fields known to the world. Their rapid development 
and growing importance are phenomenal. 

Mobile is nearer to their centre by 193 miles on the shortest 
railroad than the nearest Atlantic port, and nearer by 91 miles than 
New Orleans, the nearest Gulf port except Mobile. Besides this, 
our river system elsewhere noted, ramifies the entire extent of this 
mineral belt. 



19 



EPILOGUE. 



The overwhelming mass of resources, advantages and present 
acquisitions catalogued herein, will have been lost if the reader 
shall fail to mark their application to the future. 

Mobile's first and greatest importance must be due to the abso- 
hite necessity for a commercial metropolis on the Gulf. What 
Philadelphia is to Pennsylvania, Mobile must be to half a dozen 
Southern States combined. The ships of the world must ride her 
harbor. Her rail and water ways must distribute the imports of 
every foreign land to the vast interior, and bring to her the pro- 
ducts of that boundless interior for export to all nations. Thus the 
commerce of the world shall pay her tribute, because she requires 
less and renders to it more than any other port. 

Her industrial importance cannot but be great, but however 
important that shall grow to be, it must always remain but an in- 
cident to her commerce. It may be beneficial, however, to empha- 
size to the reader her industrial importance. To do so it is only 
necessary to summarize a few of the leading facts herein contained 
and point out their bearing on America's industrial future. Through 
reciprocity, and growing freedom of trade, requiring the scaling 
down of cost in manufacturing, America is gradually learning the 
truth which is as fixed as fate, that the world's competition must be 
met or our factories abandoned. Artificial stimulants may succeed 
for a time, but must eventually give way to the inevitable laws of 
trade. Competition with the world means manufacturing the best 
as cheaply as (or as good an article more cheaply than) rivals 
already established in the trade. Given the open market that man- 
ufacturing point must thrive best which offers the cheapest pro- 
duction and the easiest (hence cheapest) delivery to demand. 

The basis of cheap manufacturing is, briefiy, as follows : 

First— Cheap raw material. For these we offer the abundance 
of natural resources before noted, and the cheapest transportation 
in the world, that of water navigation. 

Second — Cheap fuel. The economical operation of factories, 
ships and railways depends upon cheap fuel. Manufacturing and 

[20] 



export coal can be landed at Mobile for one dollar and a half per 
ton, at most. This by barge from the inexhaustible coal fields of 
the interior. That is one-third less than the price of coal at the 
cheapest coaling port in the world. This fact alone is sufficient 
to build a Lowell, a Birmingham and a Pittsburg combined here, 
were the start to he made anew. 

Third— The cost of living. 

Prices of food, clothing, fuel and homes, all enter into the cost 
of manufacturing by regulating the demand of wage-earners. Mo- 
bile offers cheapness, abundance and greatest variety of healthful 
food, a mild and healthful climate, requiring less clothing, less 
fuel, less medicine than any other manufacturing centre in the 
world. Living expenses ^.re thus reduced to a minimum, and in 
cases of shut-outs and strikes, or any accident throwing operatives 
out of employment, a garden spot at a nominal cost would enable 
an artisan to maintain his family in independence and comfort. 
Contrast this feature with the want, suffering and hardship in such 
cases endured in the severe climates of the North. 

The combination of all these remarkable advantages at the con- 
vergence of a river system that stands unrivaled on this continent 
or in the world, at the head of a harbor which at a less cost than 
any other, can be made to float the maritime commerce of the 
world in safety— these are the reasons for our faith in Mobile. In 
these characters has the Almighty traced His edict for a great 

CITY. 

^^For further information and assistance to investigation, 
address 

The Commercial Club, 

MOBILE, ALA. 



Issued January, 1891. 



[211 



LOUISVILLE S NASHVILLE RAILROAD, 

THE GREAT 

SOUTHERN • TRUNK • LINE 



J^^EKORDING THE 



BEST FACILITIES FOB PflpUNG PjlSSEHGEBS UNO FBEIGHT. 



Nortlierii Terminals. 

Cincinnati, 
Louisville, 
Evansville, 
St. Louis. 




Sontliern TemlEals. 

Mobile, 

New Orleans, 

Pensacola, 
River Junction. 



DOUBLE DAILY PASSENGER TRAINS 



IN EACH DIRECTION WITH 



Pullman Buffet Sleepers Through 



BETWEEN TERMINALS. 



Odiresft^l n:iaa::i.cai.ii:3.g: of GrOOd^< 



THEO. WELCH, G. F. A., H. G. BARCLAY, Gen. Agi„ 

Montgomery, Ala. Mobile, Ala, 

S. R. KNOTT, T. M. J. M. GULP, G. F. A. C. P. ATMORE, G. P. A., 
LOUISVILLE, KY. 




OBILE ^ OHIO 

RAILROAD. 

Direct, Safest and Most Comfortable Line 
ST. LOUIS TO 

To Oitronelle, Ala., and the Gulf-Ooast Health and Pleasure Eesorts. 

Forming, in connection with the Plant Steaiusliip Liine, the most 
direct route to Florida, Havansi and Jamaica. 

Through Pullman Palace' Sleeping Cars with Drawing -rooin and 

Buffet daily, without change, St. Louis Union Depot 

to Mobile, Ala. 

Meals are served at the celebrated Mobile & Ohio Dining Halls at Rives, 
Tenn., and Artesia, Miss. 

Stop-over privileges are allowed holders of Tourist or Land Seekers' Tickets. 

The Mobile & Ohio is the only line running through Pullman Sleeping Cars 
daily, without change, St. Louis to Mobile. 

J. T. POE, Gen'l Freight Agent, G. W. KING, Gen'l Passenger Agent, 

St. Louis, Mo. Mobile, Ala. 

D. MCLAREN, Gen'l Supt. J. C. CLARKE, Pres't & General Mgr. 

700,000 ACRES OF CHOICE LAND 

IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI, 

Along the Liae of and Contiguous to the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. 

The finest soil and climate for early fruit and vegetables, rivaling California 
In ite peculiar advantages for this character of agriculture, and excelling it in its 
afaipping facilities and nearness to the large markets of the West and East. It is an 
undeveloped region as yet, but only awaits the advent of practical intensive farm- 
«rs to spring into wonderful productiveness and value. 

CLIMATE. 

Mean temperature for July, 1S89 : Warmest month 81.3 degrees. 

Mean temperature for February: Coldest mouth 50.9 degrees. 

Mean temperature for the year 1889 : 66.4 degrees. 

Average rainfall 64.28 inches, admirably distributed over the year. Unsur- 
passed healthfulness, pure water, good drainage, high undulating country. 

A paradise for the man of moderate means. Write for pamphlets and mapg 
giving full information, which will be sent free to any address on application. 

Address— 

ALABAMA LAND AND DEVELOPMENT CO. 

Or HENRY FONDE, Pres't, Mobile, Ala. 



o 
*3 



on the line of 

East Tennessee, 
Virginia & Georgia 

RAILWAY SYSTEM. 

^i^THE GREAT THOROUGHFARE TO THE SOUTH. 





TpE^aEEN eFgeaTp^NJ^E^BTO 



OPEN WINTER AND SUMMER. 

NEAR MOBILE.-^ v_ON MOBILE 

DASHED BY THE SPRAY OF THE GULF. 




BAY. 



tZXIJ 



oo 



> 



H 

0(5 

o 



Cooled by the Salt Sea Air. 



Fanned by the Pine Woods Breeze. 



^^gJ^^ND^P'PEIi-l^^ 



POINT OLEAE, ALA 

TManagement. 
<! Assistants. 
Entertainment. 



BEST 



fBATHING. 

\ Boating. 
Sporting. 



r->@L 



THE HEROINE 



135^-? 



Queen of Excursion Boats, owned by the Hotel, accom- 
modates visitors to Mobile, fifteen miles distant; also 
excursionists to FortMorg-an and other points of interest. 
Coupon railroad and boat tickets over all Mobile 
railways. 

Rates— |3 per day. Discount for season rates. 
ADDRESS- 
SIDNEY W. SEA, 
Prop, and Man'gr, Point Clear, Ala. 

Also owner of "Hotel Waldo." at Little Chebeague Island, 
Portland. ISfaine, 






ItlVQ^^ 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



I' mil 



mi III! 



014 540 360 1 • 



